Artist Michael Rider

Bed I 24" x 18" I oil on canvas / 2016

Michael Rider is a singer-songwriter and artist from New York city. Predominately known as a pop singer, Michael grew up painting and expressing themselves in visual media as well as in song. Michael says both practices feed in and out each other, therefore always keeping the artist inspired. Michael’s work is composed of dreamy, ethereal fields of abstraction encoded by pastels and the unconscious. Inspired by artists like Mary Scurlock, Cecily Brown, Cy Twombly, and Richard Diebenkorn, Michael’s paintings are calming, longing, a mix of styles however carry a timeless quality.

Broken Route I 22" x 15" I watercolor on paper / 2020

Michael was born in Richmond, Virginia where they migrated to New York city’s School of Visual Arts on a Silas Rhodes scholarship. Michael’s experience in one of the busiest cities in the world stirred up the peaceful and tranquil upbringing that they had in the lush, green environment of Virginia. The artist says Virginia is known for acoustic guitars and collage painting, where New York was pop music and multimedia. The culmination of these two energies attributes to Michael’s sense of perspective as an artist.